Week 5: Mid-Summer Reflection

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Monday, July 10, 2017

By:

Michael Forkner

As week five came to a close, it was hard to believe that my time in DC was half over. In the beginning, ten weeks seemed like it was plenty of time to explore the city and accomplish all my projects. Now with the summer half way over I cannot help but think about how fast the time has gone and how fast the rest of the summer will seem to go by. My time in DC has both been incredibly fun, and a great learning experience.

This week, we went on a tour of the capital to see two other SPS interns host site. One working on a house committee, the other on a senate committee. On the tour, we were able to sit in on the house chambers and watch them discuss Kate’s Law. Kate’s law, which has since been passed in the house, was an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act. Kate’s Law increased the punishment of deported peoples who try to cross back into the United States. It was interesting to watch a bill discussed which would later become national law.

Besides the capital tour, I have been dealing with copyright law for the last few days. While working on the Optics for Kids website, my main summer project, I found that all the images that were being used were of extremely low quality. I have been working with the legal department to better understand public domain and creative commons images and how to properly site them. Copyright law is exceedingly ‘fun’ and has convinced me that becoming a lawyer is not in my future, but I finally understand some of the intricacies behind it.